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Detroit Bar Owner Says He Was Beaten By White, Suburban Teens

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DETROIT (WWJ) - The owner of a popular downtown Detroit bar says he’s had enough of suburban white teens defacing his property with graffiti.

Larry Mongo, who is black, said he was beaten by a group of taggers Monday night after he confronted them on the roof of his building.

“They were coming down, trying to get by me, and one of them knocked me down with a bike. He kind of fell off and they just commenced to beating me,” said Mongo, who owns Café D’Mongo and other businesses.

Bruised and bloodied, Mongo said he called 911 and then drove himself to the police department before heading to the hospital.

Mongo said he’ll defend himself by any means necessary.

“What is the city going to say the next time I hear noise and I carry my 9 millimeter? I will use deadly force,” Mongo said. “Then when one, four, or five of these suburban kids is dead, everybody’s gonna get upset — aren’t they?”

“I have no moral problem in defending my life. I won’t have one guilty feeling or lose one minute of sleep,” he added.

Mongo said cleaning up graffiti costs Detroit business owners thousands of dollars.

“If this was inner city kids … they’re riding down the street every day breaking windows. Windows cost less than it costs us to have to repaint buildings and stuff,” Mongo said. “And, see, at the same time the city of Detroit gives us tickets for graffiti. So we have to repaint everything and it’s like just giving them a new, clean, blank board.”

Mongo said that he is looking for three to four young suspects. He specifically recalls two white males about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighing roughly 140 to a 160 pounds. One of them had reddish blonde hair and the other had dark hair and was wearing a Detroit Tigers cap.